Biography of Alexander Provines, pages 840/841.  History of 
DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., 
Indianapolis, 1914.



DeKalb county, Indiana, enjoys a high reputation because of 
the high order of her citizenship, and none of her citizens 
occupies a more enviable position in the esteem of his 
fellows than the gentleman whose name appears at the head 
of this sketch. A residence here of over sixty years has 
given his fellows a full opportunity to observe him in the 
various lines of activity in which he has engaged and his 
present high standing is due solely to the honorable and 
upright course he has pursued.  As a leading citizen of his 
community he is eminently entitled to representation in a 
work of this character.  Alexander Provines, who resides in 
Auburn, but owns a fine farm in section 9, Jackson 
township, this county, was born in Rowsburg, Ashland 
county, Ohio, on July 18, 1848, the son of Alexander and 
Dorcas (Adams) Provines. These parents were born 
respectively in Washington county, Pennsylvania on January 
31, 1818, and Ashland county, Ohio, on January 16, 1821. 
The subject’s grandfathers, Robert Provines and Hugh Adams, 
were born natives of Ireland and the latter was a soldier 
in the war of 1812. In April, 1853, Alexander Provines, 
Sr., settled on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in 
section 9, Jackson township, DeKalb county, Indiana, where 
he spent  the remainder of his days, and where the subject 
of this sketch was reared to manhood.  He received his 
education in the district schools during the winter months, 
while his summer vacations were spent in work on the farm 
up to his twentieth year, when he began teaching school, 
following this vocation during the following ten winters, 
one of which, 1870, was spent in Cass county, Nebraska. Mr. 
Provines has been prospered in his life’s vocation and is 
now the owner of one hundred and thirty-four acres of 
splendid land in section 9, Jackson township, a part of 
which comprises the farm on which his father first settled.  
To the cultivation of this place Mr. Provines devoted 
himself untiringly and with eminent success until October, 
1902, when he relinquished the labor of the farm and moved 
to Auburn, where he is now living in honorable retirement, 
although he sill maintains supervision over the operation 
of his farm. The latter is well tiled and in good state of 
cultivation and has been numbered for many years among the 
best farms of the community, being productive and well 
improved in every respect. Mr. Provines owes his success 
almost entirely to this own efforts, for he was one of the 
beginners in this locality, enduring the hardships and 
privations of the pioneers, clearing and improving his farm 
and educating and rearing his children to honorable manhood 
or womanhood.  Politically, Mr. Provines is affiliated with 
the Republican party, and was appointed a member of the 
township advisory board and was also appointed to fill a 
vacancy in the county council, holding the latter position 
when appropriations were made of the present magnificent 
new court house at Auburn.  Though Mr. Provines is not 
affiliated with any church, he has always taken active part 
in Sunday school work and has the greatest respect for 
religious societies and appreciation of the work, which 
they have accomplished.  On November 7, 1871, Mr. Provines 
married Rhoda S. Knight, a native of 

Elkhart, Indiana, and the daughter of Michael and Sarah 
(Johnson) Knight, who formerly resided in Concord township, 
this county. To this union have been born the following 
children: Harris G., of Welch, Oklahoma; Effie, the wife of 
Samuel Morr, of Fairfield township, this county; Lola, the 
wife of Wesley Carper, of Columbus, Kansas; May, the wife 
of Claude C. Moore, of Washington;  Roy, who is operating 
his father’s farm in Jackson township; Dorcas, the wife of 
Otto D. Sherer, of Auburn; Emma, who died on November 20, 
1912; Edna, who is unmarried and is at present teaching 
school at Bedford, Indiana. Mrs. Provines, died on October 
3, 1912. Mr. Provines is a splendid example of the virile, 
progressive, self-made man who believes in doing well 
whatever is worth doing at all, a man of keen discernment 
and sound judgment, broad-mined and at the same time a 
follower of the principles embodied in the Golden Rule in 
all his relation with his fellow men and, therefore, enjoys 
their confidence and good will.

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com